The present invention relates to an apparatus for washing eyeglasses, specifically the lenses thereof.
Eyeglass lenses accumulate foreign substances that interfere with vision through the lenses. Eyeglass wearers may use any handy material to try to remove such substances. Often this merely smears the substance, thereby making matters worse. By the end of the day, there needs to be a cleaning substance where eyeglass lenses may be cleaned thoroughly. Often wearers do this during their shower or bath or in the bathroom sink. This may lead to lost, misplaced or broken eyeglasses. A vastly superior procedure would be to use a cleaning station designed for cleaning eyeglass lenses thoroughly.
Specialized methods for cleaning eyeglass lenses are well known in the art. There are special impregnated tissues and cloths that are function as lens cleaners, but they often miss a part of the lens or smudge it.
There are basically two types of apparatus for cleaning eyeglasses presently known in the art. The first type is basically a place to store a bottle for dispensing lens cleaner and a box of lens cleaning tissue (Wilkins, U.S. Pat. No. 2,411,310; Wolska-Klis U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,104). A more recent version of this type of apparatus has a clip for holding the eyeglasses while they are being cleaned (Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,849).
The second type of apparatus is basically a casing for temporarily storing eyeglass with a means for cleaning the eyeglass lenses. In its simplest form, this type comprises a temporary eyeglass storage casing and a cleaning tissue dispenser (Wadanoli, U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,909). Another version has a lens support means and, instead of a tissue dispenser, an electric wash/drying chamber (Mor, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,101). Yet another version has a storage casing which includes, in addition to the tissue dispenser, a pump for dispensing lens cleaning solution after the eyeglasses are removed from the storage casing (Taormina, U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,651 B1). Yet another version of this type apparatus immerses the eyeglasses in a reservoir containing a dental prostheses cleaner (Muller, EP Application 0428034).
These devices all have disadvantages. Most lack a means for holding a pair of eyeglasses in position for complete, satisfactory lens cleaning with the correct spray pattern of the cleaning solution. Williams (U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,849) lacks a cleaning chamber aligned with its holding clip. Mor (U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,101) lacks a tissue dispenser and a means for varying the spray pattern of cleaning solution that reaches the lens, and is unnecessarily inconvenient and expensive in that it requires electricity not only for drying the lenses, but for cleaning them as well.
The present invention avoids these disadvantages and offers a more convenient, economical and simpler device for cleaning eyeglass lenses.